


The Ghost Bride

by rosegardenlake



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Dead Body, Ghosts, M/M, Poisoning, There is major character death but don't worry everything will be okay, immortal beings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosegardenlake/pseuds/rosegardenlake
Summary: In a land far away, far from the troubles of Earth, there is a realm untouched by mere man.  Sure, there are the everyday dramas of living in a society of powerful immortals, but people are happy there.  Keith is, at least.  Today, all of his dreams are coming true.  He's getting married to the love of his life,finally, and his mother, one of the most powerful beings in this realm, has actually agreed to let him go with her blessing.  He couldn't wish for anything more than this.But then, on their wedding night, it happens: everything goes wrong.When Keith wakes up on Earth, the very chaotic world his mother told him he must never go, he rushes to find his husband so they can return together.  But what can the dead do?  And what if, by the time he finds Shiro, he's too late?





	The Ghost Bride

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!! Welcome to this collab between Sea and me! We both missed signups for the reverse big bang xD and then Sea was telling me their idea that they had for it and I was like, "WHOA..." SO WE DECIDED WE WOULD DO IT ANYWAY but like a Halloween edition or something ANNDddd here we are. xD They did the art first and also most of the story was all Sea's idea. I just tried my best to get the tone right. xD I hope you enjoy!

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a realm untouched by mere man. Delicately crafted in a different vibration, these souls were fragments of starlight weaved like fine silk through the clouds, shining with a purity that could never reach here.

Everything in this realm was golden. Everything was right. Everything was perfect.

Keith was one of these souls. He was getting married.

On that day, the chapel was warm with the laughter and merriment of all their family and friends. And Keith had never felt so bright, so excited, so _ alive _ standing there beside the love of his life, hands intertwined tightly. They hadn’t been able to leave the other’s side all night, doused in bliss because of the other.

Whenever they got a moment, Shiro would lean down, whispering sweet nothings into Keith’s ear. And Keith would chuckle, drunk on the idea of all this, shivers of excitement tickling up his spine.

Married. He’d wanted it with Shiro for so long and the day had finally arrived.

_ Married _.

“You look so beautiful tonight,” Shiro said in that rich low voice of his. His eyes were dark and heated, but somehow still so gentle, burning with the depths of a love that had been forged through their years together. “Everything about you... You’re so perfect. I’m the luckiest of all the realms, there’s no one luckier than me.”

Keith smiled up into Shiro’s eyes, quirking his head slightly as he laughed. “...Then why do I feel luckier? You’re the love of my life.”

“And you’re the love of _ all _ my lives,” Shiro said. “All my past lives and all my future...”

Keith held his gaze, trying to bottle up the mirth from overpouring into his eyes. “How do you know?”

“I _ know _,” Shiro repeated firmly, placing a hand to his chest to demonstrate his sincerity. “I feel it. Right here, in my heart.”

Keith laughed, pressing his own hand to Shiro’s chest, smoothing the fabric there. “...Right here?”

“Right there.”

“Hm...” Keith hummed happily, smiling at the pristine sharp groomswear Shiro adorned. “I feel it too.”

Shiro placed his hand gently over Keith’s and, together, they intertwined their fingers again. They fit perfectly; Shiro’s were bigger, swallowing Keith’s small hands whole. So warm and protected. He gently moved their hands from his heart to Keith’s, closing his eyes as he felt the nervous hummingbird flutter of Keith’s heart.

Even then, after all those years growing comfortable in the other’s presence, Shiro could still get Keith’s heart skipping.

“Ah, and there it is,” Shiro hummed, cherishing the feeling for a long moment before bringing himself back up. “May this be the first day of the rest of our lives, together, you and me. I love you so much.”

“I love you, Shiro,” Keith breathed, swallowing hard. He reached his hand up to thumb over Shiro’s thick eyebrows, gently skimming across his temple, down the sturdiness of his jawline. Every bit of Shiro had always enchanted him. To be able to touch him like this...Keith truly was the luckiest being in every universe, in every realm, every single plane of existence...

Shiro gave Keith one last warm loving smile before he took a step back. They still touched, of course they did, hand in hand and leg against leg, but he looked up, face open. “Mrs. Kogane.”

A warm amused chuckle came from behind Keith. “Shiro, for the last time, call me Krolia.”

Shiro cleared his throat and looked down, face red. “Krolia,” he tried out the words shyly.

Krolia gave him an amused look before turning her attention to Keith. Her eyes glimmered in the chapel’s warm light. “You look so beautiful,” she whispered.

Shiro gave Keith one last warm squeeze on the hand before taking his leave. There were other guests to entertain, other friends to visit with. Having a wedding was a full-time job and being Krolia’s son was just as much as well.

Krolia walked Keith outside and over to the balcony. The moons were there, two large orbs hanging distant but bright, the stars sparkling all around them.

She turned to Keith, taking in the sight of him. Reaching forward carefully, she thread a piece of Keith's delicate headdress back into place. Her eyes sparkled as much as the tiny flecks of gold throughout his attire. “I'm so happy for you. You and Shiro. I always knew this day would come, I just didn’t think that there’d be anyone in the world I’d trust you with. ...But here we are.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Keith murmured, wrapping his arms around her for a tight hug. Despite her politics, despite her tight reign over him, he knew she only ever had his safety in mind. He knew she loved him.

But that day, she was going to let those reigns loose. That day was hard for her, but she didn’t show it, not to him, not this time. She just held him back gently.

“How are you feeling?” She murmured lowly. “As nervous as I am?”

He shook his head gently, letting his eyes fall to the gardens down below. “...With Shiro? No. Never.”

“Not about Shiro. About every single other person who wanted to be in Shiro’s spot. The idea of being by your side, someone like you...I think some people actually thought they had a chance.”

Keith let out a dry laugh and shook his head. “Delusional.”

“Maybe so, Keith,” Krolia whispered. “But...”

He turned and placed his hands on her shoulders before she could let that thought fly again. He knew everything she’d say down to the exact word. She’d already said it all already. “We’re older now, okay? I’m no longer a child. I can take care of myself. And, besides, Shiro will be with me. Always. If I can’t handle something, he _ can _. Trust us.”

There was still dark worry in her eyes. “You’re both so young... You don’t see the world like I do.”

“You were young once too but now look at you. You don’t regret marrying Dad, do you?”

Her eyes softened then. She shook her head even softer. “No. Marrying him was the best thing I’d done with my life at that point. It brought me you.”

“So we’re good,” Keith grinned.

She smiled crookedly at the look on his face, leaning forward to straighten his veil. “Yes. More than good. You two are already so strong. What will it be like with the both of you together? You'll be unstoppable. No one would stand a chance against you.”

The sound of someone clanging a utensil against glass sounded from back inside. “Time for speeches, everyone!” Coran called. “Gather ‘round. There’s Shiro...where’s our other newly betrothed? Keith? _ Keith _?”

Krolia leaned forward to place a kiss on Keith’s forehead, drawing him in tightly for a hug. She squeezed so hard Keith could almost feel the way she trembled. “I’m going to miss you being my little boy.”

Keith chuckled softly at that, leaning back to look her in the eye. “I’ll always be your little boy. Promise.”

She pressed her lips together tightly and nodded her head bravely.

He continued, “Besides, I don’t really think I’m growing any taller anymore, so ‘little’ might be permanent...”

Her wet laughter rang through the air, soothed, happy. She spoke to him words laced with her faith in them, strong and warm, “You can do anything. I believe in you.”

Keith placed another kiss to her cheek and then they walked back into the light, back where Coran was still calling and Shiro standing there, waiting.

Shiro smiled as Keith approached, leaning forward and reaching an arm out to gather Keith closer, tucking him into the nook of his chest. “Hard time letting her little Keith go?”

“You know how she worries,” Keith snorted. “It’s hard for her having so many enemies and not being able to watch me constantly anymore.”

“I know. I worry for you too.”

Keith snorted, elbowing him gently. “You too?” He quirked an eyebrow at Shiro.

Shiro smiled wryly. “Well, not in the traditional sense. I know you can handle whatever comes your way.”

“That’s right,” Keith smiled, settled.

Coran cried during his speech, the whole thing - snot, tears, loud bubbly wailing into the air. Keith and Shiro looked to each other and tried to hold in their laughter, but it broke free. They squeezed each other’s hands and leaned into the other as they looked on to their friends and family. So dorky and genuine it almost hurt how filled with love they felt.

If only they could keep this moment bottled up forever. Keith loved everything about his life. It was perfect. It was. It really, really was.

Coran sure knew how to talk, dragging time on longer and longer. Keith was beginning to get bored, drifting off to look out toward the sparkling delicate chandelier, eyeing the champagne waiting patiently in his hand. It was looking too enchanting to say no to, and Keith, not getting any more patient, finally quietly snuck a little sip.

“_ Keith _,” Shiro chuckled incredulously under his breath, leaning in closer to hide Keith from the brunt of the guests. His eyes shone with wicked amusement.

“He’s taking so long_ ,” _Keith snickered with an innocent shrug.

But his face wrinkled as he looked down into the glass, peering into its sparkling bubbles. One blooped to the surface as he stared inside. Was this really what he and Shiro had chosen for their guests? He didn’t remember it tasting like this.

“A toast!” Coran cried, raising his glass of champagne high into the air. “To our beloved Shiro and Keith, star-crossed lovers since they were so so little and young they were basically two little peas in a pod. Fate brought them together and may it bestow upon them infinite more years of their full-hearted genuine love that spreads out and is shared with the rest of us. We love you both very much. May you be blessed in all the best ways forevermore. To Keith and Shiro!”

“To Keith and Shiro!” Everyone clapped and cheered.

Now was the appropriate time to drink. Shiro looked down to intertwine their arms and drink, as was tradition.

Keith was distracted.

He placed a hand to his gut as he thought hard. Bitter. Strange. Did someone open a bottle of one of their wedding gifts maybe?

Shiro nudged him, smiling with a touch of confusion. “Keith, what are you doing? Come on.” He gestured the glass and lifted the edge to his lips, tilting his head back.

A sharp pain ran through Keith’s stomach, bitter and acrid and _ wrong _.

His stomach dropped.

“_ Don’t drink that! _” Keith shouted, slapping the glass from Shiro’s hand.

It crashed to the ground, glass shattering at their feet. The champagne splashed out across the floor, hissing as it touched ground, bubbling into stone. The angry liquid rose as thick purple fumes twisting into the air, growing and pulling at their feet like vipers.

“What-” Shiro breathed, taking a step back, encompassing Keith tightly in his arms. He looked to the ground and then up at Keith’s stricken face. Then down to the half-drunk glass in Keith’s hand. The breath left his lungs. “Oh, my god. You drank it.”

Keith didn’t know what to say. The pain in his stomach was twisting like a knife, ripping up into his lungs, burning him from the inside out. It was more pain than he had ever felt before and it had happened so suddenly. His legs gave out on him as Shiro gasped, catching Keith before he collapsed.

The mist was everywhere, swallowing them in darkness that obscured their vision. Shiro gently lowered Keith to the ground, cradling his head in his hand.

“Everything will be okay,” Shiro breathed, but his face was bleached white. “We’ll get you help. Just hang in there, Keith. Just hang in there. Can you do that for me?”

“Shiro...” Keith grit through his teeth, clinging tightly to Shiro’s hands, trying to pull his attention to the matter at hand and away from the pain that screamed at him.

Shiro looked down at the symbol spreading at their feet, then at Keith, trying to mask the panic building in his eyes, “Oh, god. Oh, Keith. They’re making us jump realms.” It could be stopped, it could, but Shiro had never been as powerful as Keith. Only Keith, at his prime, could put an end to it for the both of them.

But Keith’s head rolled back weakly. He coughed, heated wetness dribbling from his mouth and down his chin. And as his world began to dim and howl, he saw Shiro one last time. The fear on his face. The tears that streamed down his cheeks already as he cried, clinging desperately to Keith. Covering him with his body like he could pull the agony out of Keith and into himself.

Keith could feel the familiar collapsing at their feet, the pull into another realm. He wouldn’t be able to stop it. They could be separated so easily.

Keith tightened his weakening hold on Shiro’s hand, choking on the blood he tasted in the back of his throat. “...Don’t let go,” he whispered roughly, staring with the last of his flame to Shiro. “We could end up in a different world if we’re separated. ...We’ll get through this together, just...don’t let go of my hand.”

Shiro’s eyes blazed with his promise. “I won’t.”

“_ Don’t let go _.”

Shiro’s hand tightened harder, crushing Keith’s in his. “I _ won’t _. I promise. I’m never letting go of you.”

Their wedding bands glinted on their fingers as they were both pulled down...

In the middle of the torrential darkness, Keith reached out his hand, but felt nothing.

Keith had met Shiro when they were both very young, in a garden as golden as the sun. Keith was the son of Krolia, one of the most powerful and respected in their entire realm, her strength and reputation were unparalleled. Because of that, she was quite the prized target and that, unfortunately, meant so were her kin. Though she fought against it, her kin had sadly dwindled down to only one, so Keith was quite sheltered.

Keith was born in her image. And, like a flame, recalcitrant and uncontrollable, he despised that.

He was so young, but so restless. “Why, Mom?” He’d ask her in frustration, gritting his wild teeth and clenching his fists tight. “_ Why? _ I want to go out just like the other children. I’ll be good, I swear.”

And she tried, she did. She loved Keith more than anything in the world and all she wanted was for him to be happy. Well, that...and _ safe _.

She’d try to sit down beside him, taking his angry little balled up hands into her patient gentle ones. She’d look him in his fiery stubborn eyes and try to explain, “Keith. Some people can’t understand love. And what people can’t understand, they try to destroy.”

He didn’t understand then. He just didn’t want to be held down or tethered like a butterfly in a cage. He was stronger than that, he was made for better things than that.

So he ran. He climbed out of his little cage whenever his mother wasn’t looking and flew to greater heights, running wherever his eager feet would take him. And that’s how he ran right into Shiro. Right in the middle of the street. Bowled him right over.

So much for his promise to be good.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Keith had cried out with a surprised start. He had offered his hand to Shiro to help pull him back up, but all Shiro could do was _ stare _. Apparently, he had thought Keith beautiful even back then.

Most people didn’t understand Keith. It wasn’t that he wanted anything special. He had a good life, he knew. But all he really wanted was someone who listened, someone who _ got _ him.

Shiro was that person. He listened. Maybe he didn’t always fully understand, but Shiro tried and that was what was so important to Keith. He tried and tried until...one day, he knew Keith like the back of his hand...both inside and out. Literally and figuratively.

Keith, the little boy in his cage, fell in love.

Keith found his solace in Shiro. The electric pulse in him always telling him to _ run _ , telling him this _ wasn’t it _, it all calmed in Shiro’s presence. Krolia was angry at first, of course she was, but Keith couldn’t keep it a secret forever. She had to be a fool to not see how Shiro affected Keith, how Keith grew and blossomed with him. She had no choice but to allow it. It made it easier that she learned to love Shiro too.

Time passed and deeper they fell for each other. They learned to understand the other like no one else did. They were inseparable.

And then one day...the one single day that they were supposed to be bound together in title and in spirit, was also the same and only day that they were pulled apart.

People try to hurt for so many different reasons. Keith’s never been too bothered by it. And he thinks, as he falls through a darkness that feels strange and heavy, spreading apart space and time all around him, that he probably should’ve listened to Krolia after all.

Keith wakes up alone, suddenly, all at once. He thinks he still sees Shiro above him, holding him tightly into the protective cove of his chest - the image is burned into his mind, calling Keith’s name in that punctured desperation and pain that’s so rare of him. Shiro, who always shines with light.

Keith grits a plea through his teeth. _ Shiro _.

Whatever he had drunk, it wasn’t just an everyday poison. This was carefully crafted. It had hurt even him, someone born from his mother’s blood passed down by the sun itself. That should not be possible.

Something doesn’t feel right. A deep visceral pain is plunging and pulling through Keith’s core, but he can’t address that yet. He has to find him. He has to know he’s okay.

“Shiro!” He cries through the dark blue of the forest as it stares back through owlish eyes. No one answers. “Shiro! Where _ are _you...?”

Though he had not felt Shiro’s hand through the darkness as they traveled, he believes in Shiro. He wouldn’t have let go. He will be here too. Keith groans as he shifts to his side, dragging himself up to sit.

This isn’t home. He can taste it on cold humidity beading on his lips. The forest is dark and hushed, and the air that’s wet is pungent with the smell of rotting plant life and heavy stone. Moonlight shines down, a tunnel of sight, the moon watching him quietly from up above, peering in all its wise stillness through the tops of the trees - _ one _ moon.

Horror trickles into the marrow of his bones as he realizes. For all the times Keith and Shiro had run from home with each other, mischievous and laughing, jumping from realm to planet, jumping to Earth had scared Krolia the most. Keith can still hear the panic in her voice after she had dragged them both back by their ears, as her flame had burned with a rage Keith had never seen before. She had etched into his mind through her fear and panic, her eyes burning with white fire, “You must never go there again! Never. Earth is plagued by sorrow beings like us cannot bear, by an evil that you would crumble beneath. Do you understand me? It will tear you apart in worse ways than physical. If you want to continue existing, promise me you’ll never return to Earth. Promise me!”

And, stammering in fear, he had. And he’d never gone back.

This vulnerability in the air, sharp and brittle. This rotted stench. It can’t be.

His nails dig into the mildewed earth, fingers trembling deep into its crumbling pieces. Tiny bits of rock build beneath his nails. It’s so cold. He’s never felt the cold before...not like this.

He presses a hand to the pain in his stomach, trying to hold it in, peering around himself. He sees a still form a few feet away, cradled beneath the tree’s old roots, and his heart drops into his stomach.

“Shiro,” he whispers, crawling to him desperately. “No.” The ground squelches beneath him as he pulls his way through the mud. “_ Shiro! _”

He reaches for Shiro desperately and brushes away the leaves and debris that covers him, looking down into his face.

He stops.

This...isn’t...what he expected...

The head that is there, the pale lifeless face he sees...it is not Shiro’s. But still, he recognizes it. The face is his own.

He stares back into his own dull glossed over eyes. He stares because he doesn’t understand.

He looks down at his own hands, then back to the lifeless figure. Then down and back and down and -

He looks behind him, seeking, seeking, breathing hard and with fear. No. _ No. _ There has to be some answer to this. This has to be some sort of nightmare. When will he wake up? This is all wrong. This is _ so so wrong _. He can’t take this dream for much longer, his mother was right, this place wasn’t meant for him, even in nightmares. He has to be dreaming; he’s desperate for Shiro to wake him up.

_ “Shiro _!” He breathes. “Shiro!”

He turns back to the body, frantically pushing the wedding veil from his eyes, to the blood that’s soaking through the earth’s dirt, spreading more and more. It’s coming from a wound eaten away through his stomach that he sees even now, separate from him, but somehow, existing. It stings. Keith can see how the blood has slowed. How there can’t be much left. How his body is dead.

“No,” he presses his lips together tightly and hangs his head, afraid to see. He keeps his eyes closed. 

He’s not ready. He woke up this morning to golden sunlight, to his mother kissing him on the forehead, congratulating him on this start of his new life. She hadn’t wanted to let him go but she had, she _ had _ , because she had trusted him. He can’t die. He can’t. Not here, not in _ their _ realm - the mortals’ realm - not as they are.

People like them do not die. Wounds cannot kill them. And yet, Keith’s looking down into this reality, down at his still bloodied body.

Mortal. He was turned _ mortal _.

Keith peers down at his hands and lets out a shaky breath.

They’re already changing, slipping away from him as he knows them.

See-through. Blue at the edges. Transparent, a vision that is wispy and weak and scarce. There’s a light inside his chest that permeates through his ribs. It flutters and squirms to the beat of the fear coursing through him. It’s a dim glow, red as blood, but it’s all wrong. He can literally see the red glow of his heart through his chest - the way it still beats, slowly, like a ticking time bomb.

He’s dead.

“_ SHIRO _ ,” he cries in panic into the forest’s dark silence. He holds his arms around his chest tightly as he curls around himself, shoulders heaving in silent sobs. “Shiro, _ where are you? _”

Keith clumsily pulls himself to his feet and stumbles through the soggy grass, looking this way and that through the forest, only one person’s name on his lips.

_ Please be okay _ , he thinks, he chants it in his head. _ Please. Please, please, please, if any bit of good followed us here, let it be in Shiro’s safety. _

There are so many trees. Trees upon trees upon trees and he knows of their spirits, knows that they’re watching, but he’s never felt so alone. Not even from his days as a child, before Shiro, locked away in a cage. Maybe the cage wasn’t actually ever a cage at all. Maybe he’s just been a fool all along.

He draws to an abrupt stop as he hears voices in the distance. There’s a small pinprick of light nearby. Keith presses himself behind a tree, peering around it carefully.

An elderly man calls. “Is anyone out there?” He’s holding a lantern high above his head. “Hello?”

A woman stands beside him, pulling a shawl around her shoulders tightly. She places her hand on his shoulder as she peers in after him. “...Dear, maybe it’s the -”

“-It’s not any damn _ ghosts _ ,” he grunts. “Maybe someone’s lost.” He cups a hand around his mouth and calls through the darkness again. “ _ Hello out there! _If you need help, we can help you. It’s dangerous in the forests at night. Come on out.”

Keith shies back deeper behind the tree. ...Humans. He doesn’t think he trusts humans.

In the silence, the elderly couple grow restless. “I’m calling the police if you don’t. We’ll find you.”

Keith waits.

“...Let’s check later, dear,” the woman hums softly as she pats his arm to soothe him. “When the sun is up.”

The man grumbles in irritation but obliges, following her back inside, bringing the only bit of warmth in this place back with him. And then Keith is doused in darkness again.

This isn’t good. Keith turns back in the direction he just came from. ...If the couple finds him and they get rid of his body, the tether holding his spirit here will be severed. Who knows where his spirit will float beyond that, but he can’t leave anywhere without Shiro.

He looks down at the warm red of his heart. Whoever did this had underestimated him. He still has some power left, he can still go home now, forget all of this, but it’s waning. Maybe - no, _ definitely _\- when he finds Shiro he can gather enough strength to jump the both of them across realms and bring them both home. He has to do it soon though. He can’t wait. He can’t let his waning strength become even less.

He wants to go home so badly, forsake this whole nightmare. He craves it so intensely that it _ burns _. But not until he finds Shiro. He knows Shiro’s here, somewhere. Shiro wouldn’t have let go of Keith in the darkness. He had promised and Keith believes in him, even if he’s alone in this quiet dark forest. Keith just...needs to find him.

As Keith fades, it becomes more difficult to move. Something as simple as gathering leaves proves far more difficult than anything in Keith’s life, but he forces himself, covering his body so nothing shows. That’ll have to be enough.

Keith searches the grounds. “Searches” sounds preemptive. “Drags” is more like it. The pain in his core isn’t lessening, and neither is the panic and sorrow.

“Shiro,” he keeps calling, but his voice falls deeper into despair. He feels it in his gut - he’s alone.

He can’t believe that. It’s Shiro he’s talking about. And Shiro _ wouldn’t have let go _.

Beyond the forest is an old stone church, nestled away in a small protective valley. The stained glass rises tall and catches the sunlight, dispersing colored light across the grass. It depicts a couple in love, hands locked beneath a blossoming tree, heads tilted toward the other, in their own intimate world. Keith carries himself to it, gently placing his hand on the beams of rainbow that bleed through.

He leans the side of his face on the cold stone as he shuts his eyes tightly and pleads.

“Mom,” he whispers, trying to catch the sunlight in his fading hands. “_ Mom _ , I’m here. It’s me. It’s Keith. Can you hear me? _ Mom _.”

But she doesn’t respond.

Of course she wouldn’t. They’ve abandoned Earth long ago. Keith _ knows _ this.

Alone, alone, alone.

The sun bleaches through him, burning what’s left of his image. He brings his hand back to his chest and leans up against the cold stone walls, shying away from the light. ...It’s funny how the cold can burn like the sun, but it feels so much more hollow.

“Shiro...” he whispers again, letting his eyes sit along the misty horizon. There are gravestones in the distance, beyond the quiet hedges of the church’s garden. It feels fitting here, somehow. Safe. Protected.

He sees the shadows beyond the valley, remembers how the cold felt in the forest, where his body lies, hidden beneath the leaves, and Keith sinks down into the grass, running his fingers through it.

Cold. Cold, cold, cold. Mortal. Dead. Only a darkness and misery that could be found here, in Earth. He’s far from home. Time’s hardly run at all and already, he’s terribly homesick.

He thinks of his mom’s last words to him. How she said she believed in him, that he was strong enough to handle everything. He wonders if she meant it even here.

“I don’t know if I can,” he whispers, eyes welling up with tears that don’t fall from his cheeks. He looks down to the core of him - that heart that he was going to give away to Shiro today...so that they could finally become as one...and the tears come even harder.

Humans can’t see him, but that doesn’t exactly come as a shock. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that they won’t. Because who wants to see a ghost? Even the old couple who tends to these grounds limp around him without a single glance, muttering about the strange noises in the forest.

“It’s been years now,” she murmurs as she slowly rakes the leaves, eyes inspecting the forest’s edge. “I thought they’d finally left.”

Her husband sighs. “Ghosts don’t exist, dear.”

It’s all fine with Keith. He’s always had a curiosity for humans, especially when he was younger - how do they find the strength to live on such cursed ground? - but if they’re not Shiro, then they don’t matter.

The strength Keith once had is gone in this body. His joints, if you can even call them joints, feel as if they’re plastered together with cement. He’s tired, always so tired, and the odd flickering beat of his heart makes him uneasy constantly. Not to mention the sorrow, the deep-cutting loneliness, the fear that stuns and holds him.

What if whatever was after them is still here, lurking in the forests, following behind Keith in spaces he cannot see? He has to go slow, slipping through shadows even the darkness does not see, lurking over thorns that tear at his clothes, that knick his ethereal skin.

He does not find Shiro that night.

Or the night after.

Shiro has woken faith and belief into Keith’s being after all these years, but as the time goes on, as the desperation in his heart begins to grow more and more, he feels like he can’t stand it.

He’s dead. He’s dead and he’s a ghost and the man he was going to marry, the man he almost got to spend the rest of his life with...he’s gone.

Right now, it doesn’t matter who did it, it doesn’t even really matter to Keith how, he just wants to see Shiro. He needs to hear his voice. He needs to know he’s okay. He needs to bring them _ home _ before it’s too late. It might already be too late...

Keith looks down to his heart. He’s _ scared _.

This just...wasn’t supposed to happen.

He rubs his hands over his face and sighs shakily into them.

His mother believed in his strength. So did Shiro. So Keith picks himself back up and keeps going.

Keith wanders. He seeks by the oceans. He looks within the mountains. He searches. ...He searches. He won’t give up hope, he always whispers to himself, especially in his darkest moments. He won’t stop looking.

But the more he wanders this earth, the more he feels there’s nothing for him in this realm. The more alone and eaten away with despair he becomes. Keith tries to look away whenever he passes his reflection in water. It’s cruel the sight that waits for him. The wedding dress he had wanted to look beautiful for Shiro in, crisp and pristine and pure on their wedding day, the one that made Shiro _ cry _ is all but ruined. Hanging off of Keith in tatters. His feet are bloodied and torn, mud splattering up his knees and somehow onto his arms. He’s tired. Losing the bits of himself that made him _ him _.

Time keeps passing. Who knows how much? A month? Two months? Years?

Home becomes a distant thought...and then begins feeling like a dream he made up in his head. He becomes darker and more drained of vitality as hope slips from him. And he starts to understand why ghosts are the way they are. Why they howl and rage and agonize. Why they always sound so alone and envious and angry.

Occasionally, he’ll check on his body. It’s gone now. Most of it anyway. The bones are left and, as the winters slip past, they are hidden further and further beneath soil, just as Keith’s heart dims.

Keith places his hand gently on his resting place. If only his spirit were so calm, so still. His feet ache, his body hurts, that much is undoubtedly true. But he never complains; the pain is nothing in comparison to what he feels in his heart.

The dirt is good. It hides him from the rare humans who wander through this place. Because even if Keith hasn’t found anything here yet, it doesn’t mean he won’t. He needs to stay.

He needs to keep searching. God...he’s so weary.

He gives himself a moment to let his chin fall to his chest, to close his eyes and just let himself succumb to this fading evening, to the sun’s weak light that falls right through him. It’s just bones. But it’s his last bit of home, the closest to a home that he has. It reminds him he was alive once. The last bit of himself that Shiro had loved and held close. So he cherishes it.

When Keith exits the woods and walks into the valley, he sees something at the church he hadn’t noticed coming in.

A wedding.

They’re always having weddings here. It makes sense; it’s beautiful, especially in the spring when all the trees begin to bloom with their delicate flowers, covering the ground with petals like soft snow. In the night, it’s obvious how it glows. The grounds are decorated with warm string lights and glowing candles along the pathways. There are tables and sets of chairs lain out across the grass in preparation for the following day. Beautiful. A scene filled with love.

Keith can’t believe his rotton luck. They’re preparing, most likely staying the night in the church’s upper rooms, as most of the wedding parties that come here do.

He tries to hurry past them, to let this bitter feeling in his mouth roll over his shoulders and away like the waves. Maybe he’ll try the East this time, maybe Shiro would’ve preferred flatter lands. That’s it, Keith thinks to himself. He’s got to keep looking ahead, forward, into the horizon or he’s going to lose himself to the darknesses of his past. He already is. That bleeding shard of hatred writhing fiercely with the beating of ghostly heart...he feels “Keith” slipping away, replaced by someone else, someone darker.

Because every time Keith accidentally catches his withered reflection on a glass lake, every painful glimpse he sees of the dark ghastly shadows beneath his eyes, dressed as he is, on that night, but ruined, faded...it gets to him more and more each year. He never got his wedding. He never got his husband. His heart yearns for it. He’s grown so darkly envious. He can’t help himself when he pauses to look into the face of a happiness he almost had...but never got.

The fruit trees are in bloom. He didn’t realize that they were so beautiful with their soft delicate petals. The way that the wind catches them and tosses them through the air like music, and the way the moonlight softly glosses over them. ...In a world that his mother called lost, he thinks this beauty is something special to behold. The evil that love can dissolve.

What a masochist.

He leans against a pear tree tiredly, letting his head rest against it as he watches the wedding party exit their vehicles. They are all very lucky. He sees the little smiling flower girls in their sundresses laughing and running through the church’s grass. He sees the groom, pushing his glasses up his face and grinning widely, excited light in his eyes. The band on his finger is thick and sturdy. No one’s dressed in their formal wear tonight. A rehearsal then. That’s nice. That’s really really nice.

Keith tries to ignore the way his heart loses its glow at the sight of this, the way it aches and feels heavy, like it’s bleeding out, energy fading a bit more. Going blue as the rest of him. He wants to be happy for these people, he understands all too well what this day can mean with the right person.

But...

He takes in a deep shaky breath and looks down. No. It’s still too raw. Not exactly new, but...raw. With a sigh, he carries himself across the grass and away into the quiet of the garden. At least here he can be alone. No one comes out this far down the garden’s maze, not even the next elderly couple who upkeep this place. It’s forgotten and lost, just like Keith. He lets himself phase through the bushes and goes to curl up on his favorite cobwebbed bench, when he stops.

Someone’s already there.

Someone dressed as nicely as the rest of the wedding party. Someone hunched over like he’s in pain, face in his hands, sniffling roughly, nose bright red. Someone familiar.

Keith stands before him, completely stupefied. He’s searched all this time. He’s searched for so long...and he just appears, like a ghost, coming right to Keith’s own secret place.

It’s Shiro.

_ Shiro _.

He hasn’t noticed Keith yet, rubbing at his eyes as he shifts to reach into his back pocket for a tissue.

Keith has dreamt of this moment. For how many years now, it was all that was on his mind, this lost hope building inside of him, consuming him whole until that’s all he’s been lately. Ghosts hyperfixate like that, when they’re stabbed through with their own loneliness like that.

After all this time, Keith had this perfect image in his head of how it’d be if he found Shiro. Of how good it’d feel. Of how beautiful Shiro would appear. But god, his mind didn’t do him justice. Not one bit. Shiro is a god. He is _ the _ god. He is every bit as golden, every bit as beautiful as Keith knows he is. More than Keith could ever hope for.

It’s him.

It’s Keith’s Shiro.

His face is pale now and his nose is as red as his cheeks. As he rubs at it, it grows only redder. The glistening in his eyes are definitely tears and he’s a disheveled mess as he runs his hands roughly over his neck again, but even so... Even so, he’s still the most beautiful being Keith has ever witnessed.

Keith’s found him. They don’t have to be alone anymore. They can go home. They can go _ home _.

Before Keith knows it, his toes have tipped him forward. He runs to Shiro, across the path, running as if he were alive again, as if he could feel life pumping and fueling his veins.

His heart burns with everything good in life: hope, love, excitement, _ relief _, sweet unbelievable relief.

_ Shiro _ . It’s been so many years. _ Shiro _. He looks different - silver hair instead of black, dressed in human attire, wearing a thick silver ring - but Keith would know Shiro anywhere.

He’s been searching for him for so long. He’s been longing for this moment. It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here.

But Keith draws up short suddenly. His feet skid across the stone pathway.

The ring Keith had given Shiro was delicate. The ring he had given him was gold.

Slowly, things begin to wade into Keith’s senses. Shiro, dressed as nicely as he is, wearing a matching engagement ring to the groom...he can only be one person.

Shiro is here with the wedding party. The way he fidgets with the ring, the one matching, says he is the groom.

It’s like Keith’s heart stops beating, for real this time. He feels as it snuffs out and washes of color. He swallows hard, confused and pulled tightly suddenly. He feels cold all over.

What to do then...? What to do? He chose someone else...? Would Shiro even want to see Keith now?

But, after all this time, Keith can’t just turn around and leave and run. This is Shiro. Even if this isn’t how Keith predicted, he can’t just turn his back.

He steps through the mist in the air, where it curls away from his feet, parting it to get toward his husband. He stops a few feet in front of him, where Shiro is still hunched over, face in his hands. So much weight on his shoulders... Keith thinks he gets it.

This isn’t how it was supposed to happen at all.

Keith speaks softly, trying to mask all the agony he’s feeling in the moment. His voice is barely a whisper. “...You’re getting married.”

Shiro looks up, startled. Their eyes meet. His eyes grow wide.

Shiro’s lips part. Keith can see the way his lips form his name...

But he doesn’t say it. He blinks slowly, sitting up even slower, cautiously, barely daring to breathe.

Keith licks his dry lips. “...Hi,” he whispers, years of held in emotion and sorrow in his voice still. He hasn’t actually spoken to a person since the night of the wedding. To himself? Maybe. Time completely alone will do that to a person.

As Shiro gets full frontal of Keith, reality seems to catch him all at once, tearing him from his own woes. With a shout, Shiro startles from his place on the bench, tripping over it and scrambling to find purchase on the hedges behind him.

His mouth stammers over words that don’t sound.

Keith watches quietly. Keith knows he doesn’t look the same, but this reaction somehow feels like rejection. He feels so much despair weaving itself throughout his twisted sorrowful self, that he cannot even speak. He feels so ugly.

Keith’s waited for this moment for so many years, wrapped up in his own fantasies about how they’d reunite. None of the scenarios went like this.

The shock in Shiro’s face is not unexpected. But Keith’s second heartbreak is. He looks down at himself, at the weathered torn wedding attire, the delicate lace, the dainty little flowers that are barely still hanging on, all for Shiro...and it seems laughable almost that he’s here now. That they’ve found each other, but only when it’s too late. Keith waited, but he was the only one.

Keith clears his throat. The years have warped and changed him. He’s suddenly very nervous, very awkward. The ease they once had with each other is gone. He’s scared.

Why is Shiro human? _ Human _?

“You’re getting married,” Keith says again, clearing his throat again to try to heighten the volume of his failing words.

Shiro’s eyes are wide as he keeps them on Keith’s. “...You’re...you’re a _ ghost _. Are you dead?”

Keith places a hand over his chest. The heart that has always beat so red with desperation suddenly feels frozen over, a block of ice. “Yes,” he says. He sees the fear in Shiro’s eyes. “...But I won’t hurt you. I could never hurt you,” he whispers.

Slowly, carefully gauging Shiro’s reaction, Keith walks to the bench and takes a seat on the end, furthest away from Shiro. He finds that, despite all these years, Keith hasn’t lost an ounce of his love for this man. He’s not surprised. He still is so deeply in love with every wonderful beautiful part of him. Those bright steady eyes, silver as the moon, that genuity across his eyebrows that only Shiro could have, the plushness of his lips that Keith thought only he would know...

He swallows hard, forcing his gaze down to his tightly clenched hands. He still hasn’t organized his thoughts in a row, all he feels is such overwhelming hurt and disbelief. This isn’t about him, he tries to convince himself. He should think of Shiro. Of course he’d get lonely. Of course he didn’t have to wait. Who even knows how many years it’s been...maybe it’s been decades. Time passes so strangely here.

Keith clears his throat and forces out the words. They sound pained and sad. “...Are you happy?”

Shiro does not respond and the silence feels barbed and cutting.

“Please,” Keith whispers looking to the moon. He can’t bleed anymore, not like this. “...I have to know.”

Shiro struggles with himself, slowly detaching his stiff hold from the hedge behind them. He won’t take his eyes from Keith as he approaches cautiously. And though there’s fear of what Keith is, there’s also that bit of twinkling wonder in his eyes that Keith has always loved so much. The way he reveres Keith, gazing upon him like he’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen on any plane, in any realm, from the very first day they met to every day in between.

It’s not fair to look at Keith like that, with his eyes so heartbreakingly entranced, not like this.

Keith turns his face, watches the roses that have bloomed beside him. They’re so beautiful but, honestly, what’s the point? They’ll one day die and be discarded.

He closes his eyes. “Do you love him?”

Carefully, Shiro sinks into the seat beside Keith. He says lowly, voice fragile, “You’re...you’re dead?”

Keith turns away, drawing himself in tightly. He doesn’t want Shiro looking at him. Doesn’t want him to think of Keith this way. So unworthy. Not alive and vibrant and warm like that other groom. Shiro probably doesn’t even think he looks beautiful anymore.

Keith feels foolish for searching for Shiro for so long, thinking he’d actually still want Keith. Never losing that surety. He’s _ dead _. His body isn’t even rotting anymore, it’s just a pile of bones beneath cold forgotten dirt. Was Shiro really supposed to love him like this? In tatters like this, bloodied and dark and drained of life like this? Keith was so dumb.

But still... “I won’t ask anything else of you,” Keith promises. “But I have to know... You and your partner...are you happy together?”

Shiro lets the silence fall over them again before murmuring lowly, “Why? Do I not look it...?”

Keith sniffs, trying to keep the break from his voice, but he doesn’t quite manage it. “I don’t have to be a genius to know that someone crying alone in the middle of a dark maze isn’t exactly a good thing.” He cuts himself off quickly, trying to stem the bitterness in his voice. “I-I’m sorry... I haven’t talked to anyone in a long while now...” He says softly, “I didn’t come here to rub it in or to get angry or anything else. That’s not why I’m here. No matter who you’re with, I just want you to be happy...that’s all I want. I just...I guess -” He struggles with words. “...I guess the better way to phrase it would be...how are you?”

Shiro swallows hard, squirming beneath that simple question. His answer is painfully genuine. “...I... I don’t know."

Keith can still see the shock and fear on Shiro's face. He hadn't expected it out of him, that's true. Shiro was always so brave and ready for adventure. This doesn’t feel _ right _ . Keith’s heart aches with desperation. He says firmly, reaching for Shiro’s hand, who carefully slips just out of reach before they can make contact, " _ Look, _ you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm just like I ever was... I don’t have any extra ghostly magical powers or anything, I’m just...just me. Just like a person. I-I know I don’t look it much anymore...but I promise you. I’m still me."

Shiro nods slowly, eyes still slowly taking Keith in.

Keith can’t take it. “_ Please _ talk to me.”

Shiro takes in a deep breath. “This is crazy, but...would you...would you listen for a moment?”

“Of course I would,” Keith whispers back.

“It’s just...I can’t tell anyone else and I haven’t been able to in so long, it’s all just built up...”

“You can tell me anything.”

Shiro licks his lips as he thinks heavily. “Thank you.” He wipes at his brow. “Okay. Well, it...it started a few years ago. I was in a time of need, hurt and confused and he was like some angel come from heaven just in time. He helped me so much without ever asking for anything in return. He’s selfless, he’s kind, he’s good with people, animals basically flock to him. He never gets angry, he never lies, or curses, or steals. He’s basically perfect. And...somehow, for some reason, he loves me. It should be good. It should be easy.”

Keith sees how Shiro fiddles with the ring on his finger. It catches the moonlight and reflects it back into Keith’s eyes. It’s so big. So gaudy. Keith would’ve never chosen that for Shiro. He doesn’t need it.

“When he asked me to marry him, I thought...why wouldn’t I say yes? I couldn’t think of any reason to say no. But...suddenly, everything’s so real. I...I’m supposed to love him like he loves me and care for him and...and I don’t know if I’m on the same page. I don’t know. I’m supposed to be with him now and smile and entertain and talk about how happy we all are. They’re probably all worried, but I...I just wanted to be alone. I couldn’t pretend anymore. I needed a moment to breathe. Or else I think I might just go crazy.”

Keith doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t want to be selfish and discourage Shiro. He doesn’t know what’s right. He finds his heart aching even more, growing even duller, closer to black.

Shiro watches it, staring down at the change of color that they both bathe in. “...What is that?” Shiro murmurs softly. His eyes flick up to Keith’s in concern. “Why is it doing that?”

“Just...ignore it,” Keith sniffs, laughing as he places a hand over it, trying to block out the dark glow through his small spindly fingers. It’s impossible. “It’s an embarrassing telltale giveaway of every little thing I’m feeling. I hate it. Just ignore it. Go on.”

Shiro laughs softly, the tone of it sad. He looks back into Keith’s eyes. “I...I do care for him.... And he’s a good person. But I can’t help but feel like...like something’s wrong. It just feels like...something’s missing. Something important. And when I ask myself my reasons for marrying him, I find that it feels like another question, something that’s not even about him, one I can’t put my finger on...” He shakes his head and leans his head in his hands again, sighing out wearily. “I’m so confused.”

Keith draws a finger over his own ring. “...Hm.” He takes a deep breath. “You should talk with him... Maybe he has the exact answer you’re longing for. Maybe he’ll remind you why you said yes. You never know...perhaps you’re both on the same page and you didn’t know it. Worry can distort your perception sometimes. My mom is a good example of that one. But...I mean...maybe she was right all along.”

“Mom’s usually are, aren’t they...?” Shiro hums.

Keith snorts. “_ Oh _, yeah. I can hear her now... The tone she’d take when she’d say, ‘I told you so’. Though...I think, this time, if I were to ever see her again...” He murmurs as he stares up into the night sky filled with its stars and lone moon, “Maybe she wouldn’t actually say it this time...”

Shiro watches Keith for a long moment before he says, “I don’t remember much about my mom. I had an accident a long time ago. My memory’s been shot ever since, but...I do remember some things. Vague things. Like how she used to tell me stories about ghosts. She’d say that there was nothing to be afraid of. That they felt just like us...” He looks down to Keith’s heart, lips parting. “Loved just like us... She would’ve wanted to help you.”

Keith can’t look at Shiro. He presses his lips together tightly and clears his throat. “Aren’t you the one who needs the help right now? Your fiance is waiting for you and you’re crying on a dusty stone bench in the middle of a maze.”

Shiro snorts in amusement. “I guess that’s true. You’re a rude ghost, aren’t you?”

Keith laughs and nods his head. He kicks his feet out and sighs. “Talk to him. You won’t regret it. You’ll regret not bringing something so critical to his attention in a moment like this. Don’t wait. Honesty is important in a relationship.”

Shiro hums in disappointment.

“There are no shortcuts in relationships. You just have to trust in the other and everything will be alright... Someone wise once taught me that... And I still believe it, even now.” He looks up to Shiro and smiles. He finds it’s not forced. He’s not angry. He truly just wants Shiro’s happiness.

And isn't this good? Keith realizes. Shiro's been alive all this time, enjoying himself. He hasn't been a pile of forgotten bones like he feared. He’s been alive, vibrant, healthy, cared for.

Keith is glad.

But Keith’s probably not strong enough to bring even just himself back home anymore. He looks at the faded lukewarm color of his heart, how torn up and worn it is, just like the delicate cloth he still wears. It’s smaller than it’s ever been. And though it still glows, it’s no longer that flame it started as. He probably wouldn’t have been able to get them back home anyway...even then. So maybe this is all just for the best. Shiro can be happy this way.

Shiro sniffs, wearily lifting his head and running his hands across his tear-stained face. “Ugh. You’re right. I know you are. Thank you. You sound like you have a lot of experience in this stuff. You know just what to say to calm me down...” He chuckles softly, turning grateful eyes up to Keith. He does look genuinely happy now. Mission accomplished. “Is this what you do here? Help lost brides and grooms with their relationships?”

“Oh, god. No,” Keith laughs. “No, of course not. Only you.”

“Is that so? I feel special.”

“You should,” Keith laughs again, tilting his head toward Shiro, warmth somehow blossoming in the midst of this. Just like old times. How he’s missed this.

Shiro’s smile only grows, reaching his eyes until they’re twinkling at Keith. “...It’s nice to have someone to talk to. So...thank you. I mean it. For once, I feel like I have someone on my side.”

“For once? Of course you do. Always.”

Shiro hums happily and it’s genuine and soft and sweet. “You know, despite my mom’s stories, I’ve never seen a ghost before. I never really thought I would. It was a little surprising...”

“Mm, you’re in the majority. Not many can see me. It’s amazing what people can ignore when they want to.”

“No one?” Shiro worries, tilting his head, eyes filled with sadness for Keith.

Keith forgot how easy it was to get lost in those eyes, to give away a part of yourself even if there’s no room for him to take it. “Well, a child once,” Keith says. “She looked right at me, but no one believed her and she ran from me as quickly as she could, so... Cats and some dogs catch sight of me sometimes, but...not quite the same as people.”

Shiro listens, face heavy with sympathy. “...You must be lonely.”

“It’s okay, Shiro. Really. You don’t have to worry about me. ...Talk to him. If he’s right for you and you care for him, it’ll work. I know it will.”

Shiro nods slowly and runs his hand over his shirt, soothing out the wrinkles. “You’re very kind. ...I’m glad you stopped to talk with me. It feels right in your presence somehow, even if you are my first ghost sighting.” He smiles tentatively and Keith smiles back.

“Any time, Shiro.”

His eyes fall to Keith’s dress, taking in the moonlight’s delicate touch against lace, or how the flowers seem to glow against Keith’s odd coloring. Sadness pools in his eyes the more he looks. He reaches his hands out experimentally, running his fingers through Keith’s veil. Keith freezes, a deer caught in the headlights. To be touched after so long, by Shiro, no less. It’s overwhelming.

Shiro whispers closely, “...You’re beautiful. I hope you know that. The veil, the dress, the ring...your eyes,” Shiro whispers and Keith feels his soul trembling with his shaky exhale. “You have the most stunning eyes, like galaxies... You’re the most beautiful bride there could ever be. For a second there, when I first saw you, I thought you were some avenging angel. I’ve heard of the hauntings here; but, for some reason, I didn’t believe them. Funny...” He hesitates. “Did you ever...get your wedding?”

Keith blinks up. “What?”

There’s genuine curiosity in Shiro’s eyes. He licks his lips nervously as he murmurs, cheeks tinting pink. “...Your betrothed was very lucky to find someone as kind and beautiful as yourself. Did you get to experience your wedding...before you died? I hope you did.”

Everything in Keith comes to a grinding halt. He feels the breath punted from his lungs like he’s been punched.

The way Shiro looked at him like it were the first time. Maybe Shiro actually thought that it was. Something must’ve gone wrong when they were torn into this realm.

_ No _.

Shiro misinterprets Keith’s blank stare. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammers quickly, holding both of his large hands up in sincere apology. “That’s incredibly rude of me. It’s none of my business.”

“You don’t remember me?” Keith whispers harshly around the disbelief bloating in his stomach.

“I...I don’t _ think so _. I’ve never seen a ghost before, remember?”

“...Shiro?” Keith whispers, drawing his hands over his heart. It feels almost like that one day, long ago, when he first fell to Earth. Like the world’s falling out from beneath him. He’s so shocked, so unprepared.

Shiro’s face twists in uneasiness. “I-I wonder...how do you even know my name?”

“...What do you remember?”

“Remember? About what?”

Even though Keith knows how ugly his desperation can get as a ghost, he can’t help as his panic bursts from him, distorting his face with agony. “How you _ got here _?”

Shiro draws up tightly, warmth being replaced by fear. He leans away from Keith carefully. “...I...I don’t understand what you mean..."

Keith closes his eyes tightly, rocking forward as he shoves his head in his hands. “Oh, god... Where do you think you came from?" Keith asks.

"Um...I live just a few miles down the road."

“That is _ not _ what I meant. What’s my name?” Keith asks, trying to hold back tears and the height of his agony. “...Do you _ even know _?”

Shiro watches on, half in pain, half in confusion. “I’m sorry... I’m so sorry. I think you have me mistaken for someone else.”

“No. _ No _.” Keith feels his heart begin to rage, can see through his eyelids as it flares with his agony, bleeding that dark oozing ruby red.

He really is his mother’s son, even in death, after all this time. He can’t get ahold of this temper.

Shiro takes a sharp intake of breath, leaning even further back, blinking at Keith’s heart. “I-I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

It’s scaring Shiro.

Keith stands, walking away to the hedge to lean against, trying to take in a calming steadying breath to get ahold of himself.

He feels like he’s losing Shiro for the third time. It just progressively gets worse and worse. This is some cruel joke. It has to be.

Shiro’s watching Keith in sharp concern, hands out awkwardly like he wants to help but doesn’t know how. To him, memory-less, Keith’s just some strange ghost having an emotional breakdown. This whole conversation has been random for him and not dipped in emotion and love, like it has been for Keith.

Shiro does not belong to Keith anymore, not even in memories.

“No,” he whispers around strained lungs. It takes more effort than he thinks his body can put forth, but, for Shiro, he will. He presses his shaking hand to his stomach to try to force his emotions back in place. He forces words out and they come out stiff and all wrong. “...No, I’m...I’m sorry. I...I haven’t spoken to anyone in years. I apparently don’t know how to communicate anymore...”

Shiro settles back into his place, watching Keith with deep-pitted concern. “...It’s alright. Come sit with me. I get it. I can’t imagine how painful it’s been for you. Being alone can do things to a person, no one’s immune. But you’re not alone anymore. I’m here. You can talk to me.”

Keith lets out a small sob at that. Shiro doesn’t remember him, but still, he’s so kind. He rubs a hand over his eyes, trying to quell the tears.

It’s better this way. Shiro doesn’t have to hurt this way.

“...You’re right,” Keith clears his throat, slowly collecting himself from the hedge. He shakes his hands out and repositions his veil carefully. He turns back slowly, his cold bare feet tickled by the ruined cloth he wears. “...Maybe I just...have you mistaken for someone else.”

Very slowly, so slowly that it might be entire minutes, he makes his way back to the bench, looking up to make sure he’s still welcome, taking his place carefully beside Shiro. They’re quiet for a long while, but the silence doesn’t feel rushed. Keith looks up to the moon, who has watched his entire story unfold, just as it has watched Shiro’s, nearby apparently. And he wonders if the moon has been laughing this entire time.

Keith forces out on a whisper, “I never got my wedding... It was a long time ago. A long, long time ago, but...it still hurts. It was the day of our wedding. It was going to be perfect. My mom was there and she was finally going to let me go,” he laughs sadly. “Our friends were there. _ He _ was there. ...It was going to be...so...perfect...”

Shiro shifts in his seat so they’re closer, leaning forward as he listens intently. A fresh wave of tears pours from Keith’s eyes. “...The one I was to marry, he was as kind as you. As beautiful, too. ...And I miss him like nothing else every single moment I remain here, alone. He’s the love of my life. He means everything to me.”

“What happened?” Shiro whispers.

“Oh...” The words burn in Keith’s throat, sour and wrong, “He’s gone now. I took for granted that our love would be enough to keep him beside me, but sometimes things beyond our control just happen...” He shrugs as he sniffs roughly. “Not all happiness can last. But I hope...wherever he is, he can find his happiness that lasts for him. I really really do...”

“You too,” Shiro whispers, reaching out for Keith’s hand. Keith can’t even protest when Shiro grabs it tenderly in his own, squeezing it gently. “He would want you to be happy too. ...My fiance and I live nearby. You shouldn’t always be alone. You can come talk to me anytime. Night, day, rain or shine. I mean it. You’re not alone.”

Keith’s heart begins to fade in color again. He can see as Shiro watches it, his own eyes dimming in sadness as he realizes Keith's unspoken decision.

Like he could ever do that - watch Shiro build a life with someone else as Keith fades and withers.

Keith puts a hand over Shiro’s heart, smoothing out the wrinkles. Familiar as their own wedding night. So different though. “You’re kind,” he whispers, smiling around his tears. “Thank you. I wish you happiness.”

“I wish the same for you...” Shiro says, squeezing Keith's hand for strength once more. Keith can see, through the seams of Shiro's shirt, unfamiliar metal. Such a human fixing, it catches Keith by a surprise for a moment, before he remembers that Shiro is human now.

And still, Keith doesn’t love him any less. No matter what Shiro is, he is the most amazing being Keith’s ever known and that will never change.

“Hey, Shiro...?” He asks softly, running his hand along the seams of Shiro’s metal arm. Careful clean work. Shiro doesn’t flinch as Keith places his hand on him. “This looks so good...especially for human work. Woven with love and care... ...He did it for you, didn’t he?”

“My fiance,” Shiro says, looking down to it. “It was an accident that happened long ago.”

Keith remembers. “Yeah,” he laughs softly. “The scars look brutal still...”

Shiro watches Keith run his fingers along the seams. “It’s...it’s funny, now that you mention it. I can’t remember how it happened...”

Keith knows he shouldn’t do it - he shouldn’t say what’s in his head - but he’s feeling selfish and greedy. He wants a tiny part of Shiro for himself too. “Yeah... We both jumped a few galaxies too far. My mom told us not to, but we never listened, did we? You were scared to go, but I convinced you everything would be fine. It wasn’t, of course. You protected me...and got hurt in my stead. I was so scared you’d be mad at me when you woke up, that you’d spite and hate me forever and I’d lose you. It was my idea. It was all my fault. But the first thing you did when you woke up was smile that big genuine smile of yours. And you asked...you asked if _ I _ was okay. And you said that it was worth every second. I think that’s when I realized just how much I loved you...and all I’d do for you, no matter what.” He rubs roughly at his face. The tears burn his skin. “You know how to make the best out of things. I know that this marriage will work, Shiro. Because it’s you. And you’re the best person I’ll ever know.”

Shiro stares, face going strange. “...Wait,” he murmurs, voice going hazy and dream-like.

“I can’t do anything for us as I am anyway. And if you remember, which, one day, you just might...know that you have my every blessing. And I will always love you. Always.” Keith gently place a kiss atop Shiro’s forehead, trying to pass along whatever benevolence he has left in his spirit onto Shiro. He gives Shiro one last warm smile as he pulls away, moonlight at his back. “But this is really for the best.”

“_ Wait _,” Shiro calls again, hand reaching out.

Keith wishes he could. He wants nothing more than to stay with Shiro forever, but if he has to let Shiro go, he needs to commit. And commiting includes this: learning how to walk away from the one thing that’s kept him going all these years.

The next morning, Keith tries to soothe out the unruliness that is his hair. He hasn’t showered in years, after all. It’s actually pretty gross; he never really thought about it. He looks into a small bird bath, seeking out his reflection and repositions the veil, setting it over his shoulders just so. It used to be his mother’s, a traditional gown passed down through their family for centuries. It had been beautiful once.

This is so stupid. It’s just a bad idea no matter which direction he looks at it. He knows not to do it, that if he hopes to remain on this Earth for much longer as a sane being, not turning into some mindless raging ghoul, he needs to stay away.

For his heart’s sake...he needs - to stay - away.

But he doesn't, of course. Because this is Shiro's wedding, and, in a way, Shiro's wedding has been the one Keith has been waiting for all along. How could he possibly turn away now?

Though the clouds darken the sky, the air smells sweet like honey as the wedding and morning begins. The children are out again, laughing and playing tag through the garden. Friends are excited, cherishing, congratulating. It’s reminiscent to their own wedding, back then. The joy of it. And Keith’s glad for Shiro, hopes that he will finally find his happiness in this since he never got the chance to with Keith.

Keith remembers the words that Shiro had whispered into his ear that day.

“The love of all my lives,” Shiro had said, breath soft and intimate against Keith’s ear. “All my past lives and all my future...”

Sometimes promises aren’t meant to be broken, but it happens regardless.

He can see, over the heads of the crowd, Shiro standing out and over them. He's beside the groom, placed there, but it doesn't seem effortless or natural, like it had with Keith.

Well, he's a little biased...but Shiro's distracted, looking out and away. His fiance touches his arm in concern and Shiro turns back to laugh, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck, abashed. But as his fiance re-enters the conversation in front of them, Shiro doesn’t even attempt to engage, still looking out, not even noticing his fiance’s side-glances of worry.

Searching.

Keith lowers his face, letting his eyes drop down to his marred dress, running a hand over a wrinkle before he stops mid-way.

What’s he doing? He brings his hand back to his chest and looks back up from beneath his eyelashes and watches quietly. He's made sure that he's out of sight, hiding in the forest, behind the trees' cover, but Shiro seems to have guessed as much, eyes honed right to the forest's edge.

Keith's heart flutters a bit and he hates the way that some energy and strength returns to him, sees how his heart's beating strengthens knowing that he hasn't been forgotten. That Shiro's thoughts are of him.

If he wanted, he could go to Shiro. He could whisper little enticing nothings into his ear, draw him away, gather Shiro into his own hands, like some fae creature in the woods wanting to lure him in and eat his heart. Look how his interests wander already...

But Keith hides alone instead. He watches the smiles, the people congratulating, the presents being stacked on the table for Shiro. All this love out there for Shiro.

He watches as Shiro murmurs something to his fiance and breaks away before the man can protest, wandering through the gardens, down to the end of the maze where they had met beneath moonlight the night before. Disappointment coats Shiro's face as he returns. And Keith feels a tug in his heart.

Just because he’s a ghost doesn’t mean he’s any wiser, that he knows things about life that humans don’t. He doesn’t know if he’s doing the right thing by hiding or if he’s just making things worse. But he doesn’t think he even has the strength to approach Shiro and leave again...because he knows if he does, he won’t be able to leave another time.

So Shiro, sighing, drags himself back to the front of the chapel, pulling up a smile for his fiance as he flicks his gaze out, and then, finally, pulls his attention to his guests.

He should leave, Keith thinks. Right now. He’s seen enough to make him miserable for the rest of his existence. Watching Shiro get married - the actual ceremony of it - could very well cause so much pain that his very soul detaches from his old failing bones. And where would he go then? Not home, he lacks the strength. But he stays as the guests all gather inside the chapel. He stays even when the bells begin to ring and they’re all called inside. He sees Shiro and his fiance give each other one final kiss before his fiance leaves through the doors, tossing one last hesitant look his direction. Everyone leaves through the doors.

But Shiro waits outside, the last one, turning one last time. There's something so sorrowful in his eyes.

The wind picks up and swirls the dainty pink flowers at his feet. Shiro clears his throat and says loudly into the silence, "Are you out there...? I know you are... I don’t know how, but I can just...feel it. I've been thinking about what you said last night. The image of you has been haunting me since then...there's something about you. ...I knew you once, didn't I? Something about this just...it doesn't feel right. And I think it has to do with you. ...Why did you run away...? I have so many questions."

Keith keeps quiet, picking at the skin around his nails until they bleed.

"You knew me too," Shiro murmurs softly. "Please... I know you're out there."

Keith leans against the tree as silence stretches through the both of them, just watching as Shiro hangs his head and sighs heavily. Keith whispers to himself, despair in his heart, "You don't even know my name..."

And, finally, with one last discontented look out, Shiro turns and leaves.

This would be the time to leave. Now. Keith can turn just as Shiro is, and go.

Keith follows him into the chapel. Because he's a masochist. Because he’s stupid. He waits until everyone's seated and that telltale wedding march plays and echoes through the hall - so like a human to play that song.

But still, he longs for it. Feels the wanting beating through his ethereal form, making him hurt. He sees Shiro and his fiance down that long red carpeted aisle, basked in evening sunlight through the high windows, their hands held tightly together as they smile into the other's face, celebrated and acknowledged by their loved ones and friends. They’re so lucky... They have the perfect life...

Familiar. Painful. And such a contrast to Keith’s life now it’s too cruel.

_ Run _, Keith screams to himself in his head, but he’s frozen to the spot. Shiro is so heartbreakingly beautiful, smiling at another.

They're already at their vows.

"Do you take this man, in sickness and in health, for the rest of your life for as long as you both shall live?" The priest asks the fiance.

The fiance smiles and takes in a deep breath. "I do." His voice is so warm.

"And you, Shiro, do you take this man, in sickness and in health, for the rest of your life for as long as you both shall live?"

Keith doesn’t even realize how tightly he’s holding onto the side of the doorway, eyes fixed, breath trapped in his lungs.

Shiro pulls a smile up onto his face as he repositions his hold on his fiance’s hands. He looks deep into his fiance’s face, opens his mouth to say the words...and falters.

The pause is painful, even in the first few seconds of it. But then it draws out longer as Shiro's smile slowly chips away at the edges, and his nose wrinkles with pain and guilt. He lets his gaze fall away from his fiance, down to their feet for a moment and then up to the sunlight pouring through the window. He sighs.

Shiro turns to look down the aisle and his eyes go immediately to Keith's.

Keith's glued to the spot, hand going still on his stomach, staring in a mix of awe and horror. Shiro smiles slightly.

Keith stares right back.

The crowd turns to look too, but no one seems to get it. They look right through Keith and then back, baffled. “What’s happening? What’s he waiting for?” They ask.

Shiro leans into his fiance’s ear and whispers. Though he holds his hands in his own still, the fiance stumbles back in shock, mouth agape.

“But...” Is punched from his lungs. “But all of this...”

Shiro's hands slip from his. “I’m sorry,” he whispers before turning to the crowd. “I’m sorry...” And then he turns and strides down the aisle.

Chaos erupts and everyone stands up from their seats, questioning and harrassing. Keith, still in shock, quickly runs out of the way and into the forests, slipping behind the trees.

"How could you do this?" Keith can hear people calling from inside still.

"Is there someone else?" Keith twitches at that. Like Shiro would ever.

But Shiro's running out, ignoring all others, eyes scanning the forests for Keith. This time, he does not keep his distance. Shiro runs straight into the darkness after him.

Keith scrambles away, picking up the skirt of his dress and running over roots. Unprepared for any of this, he hasn't thought his escape out. He just goes where his feet take him, to his base, over his buried bones.

There's nowhere else to go.

Shiro huffs a soft sigh as he sees him there, eyes desperate. "...You keep running," he whispers, voice strained.

"...You keep chasing me.” He eyes over Shiro, at the way he pants, his firm stance here. “Shiro, what are you doing? You said yourself he’s kind and wonderful and perfect. Don’t throw this all away, especially not if it has to do with me. _ Why _ would you do this?”

“You know why... More than I probably even know. This doesn’t _ feel right _. It’s like I’ve been searching for something, but I hadn’t known what until right now.”

“You don’t even know my name,” Keith whispers, taking a step back.

Shiro steps forward, hands out in genuine want to understand. “But I feel like I know so much more about you. I feel like I know everything. Don’t run. Please, don’t run.”

Tears well up in Keith’s eyes. How right Shiro actually is. “Shiro, look...I understand what you mean when you say something doesn't feel right and I _ wish _ we could stay together. I want nothing more than that. But you're making the wrong choice. I can't do anything for you this way. I can't bring us home, not anymore, it's been too long on Earth. I'm too worn, look at me. I wish I had the strength. I really do. But it's better this way...if you just stay like this and I just stay like I am. You can find happiness this way. I'm okay with it...and you will be happier if you come to terms with it too."

"I wish I could," Shiro says, taking another step closer.

Keith takes another step back.

"But it's this feeling in my heart, even before I met you yesterday on that bench. Something felt off all these years, like something was missing. And I think... I think I found it, like a puzzle piece fitting into a blank spot. Everything makes sense suddenly. The thing that was missing, that I’ve been blindly trying to find, it's y-"

"-Stop," Keith says, clenching his hand over his heart. "...Just..._ stop. _ Even if he was out of the picture, look at me." He holds his hands wide, blue and red and burning. "...Look."

"It's okay."

Keith laughs softly, eyes lowering down the to ground beneath his feet. "How is any of this okay? I’m not even rotting anymore. I’m just bones. You can’t stay with bones."

Shiro doesn’t know how to answer that. He’s going purely by intuition, but intuition doesn’t exactly provide steady answers.

Footsteps stumble up from behind them but Shiro keeps his eyes on Keith. They stare at each other through the sharp silence.

"...Takashi," the fiance whispers in distress. "_ Takashi _ . ...What are you doing out here? It’s not _ safe _; they say there are ghosts in these forests. Don't tell me you've fallen in love with a ghost?" He laughs around tears.

Shiro closes his eyes tightly. "You can see him?"

"Wh-what?"

It had just been a joke. Shiro lets his eyes slip down and away.

His fiance walks closer, hands out. "Takashi, I understand getting nervous about all this, I do. It’s a lot and I know you don’t like big productions. Everything's going to be fine though... We're going to be okay. Let's just...go back. Everyone's waiting. We'll go through with this and then, together, we'll -"

“No,” Shiro says firmly.

“-Work this out." He draws up tightly as what Shiro just said registers. “...What?”

Shiro is quiet.

“_ Why _?”

“I'm sorry. This doesn't feel right, it hasn’t for months now but I’ve been too afraid to tell you. I’m sorry. I just can’t go through with this when I’m not sure. I don’t want to ruin the rest of both of our lives. This is all your family and your friends and I...I’ve just felt alone all this time. I've made my decision and that...that's what feels right.”

There's a stiff sticky silence.

“...You’ve been distracted all day long, looking out, like you were waiting for someone. Tell me what this is really about. Is there someone else?”

Instead of denying it, which would be fair, Shiro hesitates, pressing his lips together tightly as his eyes seek out Keith’s. There’s already so much warmth there. “Not in the way you think...”

“Oh man,” his fiance breathes out roughly, looking down at the ground at his feet. “So that’s it, huh?”

Shiro whispers, “That’s it.”

“...You remember?”

Confusion flickers through Shiro’s eyes as he looks to Keith, but when he looks back to his fiance, his face is clear of his tears.

“That's funny,” the fiance breathes out, tapping his foot to the ground in irritation. “That’s really funny. ...I tried really hard to separate the both of you, you know...? And I thought, after all these years of silence from _ him _ that I had. It was supposed to be the perfect plan where nothing could go wrong. I killed him. They all told me I couldn’t kill a being like him, but I _ did _ . I thought I _ did _. ...But they were right all along, weren’t they? He's here, isn't he?"

Shiro blinks, face going blank.

“_ Isn't _ he?”

“Who?” Shiro breathes.

“Don’t. Lie. To me.” The fiance's demeanor changes instantly. He goes from genuine concerned partner to a demon spewing fire. Keith's insides sink as he realizes that not all has been as it seems.

“Do you know how much time I've wasted on this? On_ you _ ?” He howls like the angered wind. “All the dedication? All I’ve traded away to create that poison? To send you both away? For you to casually pass me by on the day of our marriage?” He laughs bitterly, head tilted back. “You think you can get away? You think you’re going to make it out of this alive? I don't think so. You’re _ human _ now. I could’ve killed you at any time, you realize that? But I thought we could have a little fun. My mistake.”

And as he grits and gnarls out his words, his body begins to shift. His human form is burned away, blackness picked up by the wind like ash. It pollutes this hidden place, plugging up the air like fog, pulling a veil over their eyes with darkness as he grows as high as the trees. Darkness manifested.

Shiro’s fiance becomes the darkness itself, some sort of creature, some dark spirit that pulls at the atmosphere with electrical wrongness. It hurts to breathe.

“Shiro,” Keith breathes, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back. Keith’s hair and veil keeps whipping against his face. “The only thing keeping me tethered here are my bones. If they’re ruined, so am I. I’ll be gone forever.”

“Where are they...?”

“Right beneath our feet."

Shiro looks down at the dirt, shifting his foot back carefully. Something precious is just beneath them. He looks back to Keith in desperation.

Oh. Right. Keith forgot. Shiro’s human here. Completely, innocently human. He doesn’t stand a chance, not like this.

Keith pushes him back, behind him, sheltered. “Go,” he orders. “I can handle this. You don’t remember your old self. There’s nothing to be done like this.”

Shiro says urgently, grabbing Keith by the arm, “No! I’m not leaving you!”

“_ Go _ !” Keith pushes fiercely and Shiro stumbles back in surprise. He hadn’t expected Keith to be so strong. “Don’t be a fool. Don’t worry about me! How could you? You don’t know me. You don’t even remember my name!” He grits out between clenched teeth, emotion choking him. “...It’s okay. You owe me nothing. Just go out and find your happiness, okay? I want you to! _ Go! _”

But Shiro won’t run.

Keith has spent years too long here. He was never meant for a place like Earth. From the first moment he existed here, he began to wither and weaken.

When the darkness, with all its malice and strength, reaches its crooked gnarled fingers for them, Keith isn’t sure if he’ll be enough. Logically, he knows he isn’t.

But Shiro. Human or not, married to Keith or some demon or maybe not even married at all...any of it, Keith wants to protect any of those versions of him. 

So even if he’s not strong enough, even if he’s muddied and wrecked over the years, not even a tenth of the image he was for Shiro on their wedding night, Keith _ will _ be enough. Because he has to be. Keith used to banish evil spirits all the time. In another place, this would be simple.

The winds rage and scream and writhe. He feels its burning at the edges of his form, feels an odd breaking.

He hears Shiro grit through pain. Shiro should never sound like that.

In the midst of it all, nestled deep in the middle of Keith’s worn heart, a light that has been struggling to spark ignites and flickers to life. Shiro needs him. And that’s all there is to it. Keith’s heart flares with the brightness of a million suns, painting the entire forest in its brilliant crimson red, darkened with time, like the evening sun, but still so alive. It pierces through all the darkness around them, illuminating the tops of the leaves over every tree.

Keith loves him; he has to protect him.

He feels renewed strength spreading through his heart and into the tips of his fingers. He feels the way that love pounds through his chest, that beating that pulses and howls right back in the face of darkness.

It’s so strong it uproots the roots around them, overturns the rotted trees, rips through the dirt and leaves. It crushes out the shadows that hide and the ones that don’t. It obliterates everything in his path.

And in the midst of all the chaos, one single thing remains untouched.

Shiro. Standing stupefied, pale and human, hand still holding onto Keith’s protectively though he shakes, harmless and completely powerless.

Keith takes a deep breath, trying to get ahold of himself as Shiro reaches his hands out, catching Keith in his arms before he falls.

He laughs softly, smiling up into Shiro’s face. Looks like he did have enough energy to do anything he wanted after all. But already, he feels the energy slipping out of his limbs.

Keith tore everything up around him. Whatever that stupid spiteful dark creature was, it’s gone now. The light flaring and burning in Keith’s chest begins to settle back down and then, slowly, dim. He tore up everything. _ Everything _.

His bones are disintegrating. Disintegrating through the air like tiny cut-up bits of paper, Keith watches them go, fading up into the moon’s quiet light.

Shiro watches too.

“No,” Shiro breathes in horror. “...No. You’re fading.”

Keith is swaying. He looks down to his hands and groans softly as he sees them already drifting. His heart’s light had flared like a star but now is its time for it to extinguish.

This feels familiar. In Shiro’s arms, fading away. But this time, he’s at peace.

“It’s okay,” Keith tries to whisper. “You’ll figure things out... You’re you. You can do anything... You can find happiness here, I know it. Just don’t give up...okay? Don’t give up.”

“I won’t,” Shiro says firmly. “I’m not giving up on _ you _,” Shiro says softly. “Never on you.”

Keith hums lowly, taking in Shiro’s face, letting himself bathe in this moment. Not a bad way to go, held by the one you love most in the world.

“I love you,” he whispers to Shiro, reaching a shaky hand up to his face. He’s got to say it, even if Shiro doesn’t full understand the depths of it. “I love you so much...”

Tears fall onto his face. “I love you too. Keith. _ Keith _.”

Keith freezes in surprise. Did his ears deceive him? He hardly dares to let himself believe. He must be brave. He forces himself to look back up into Shiro’s eyes.

He finds that flame there again, golden and strong and right. His humanity is burned out of him. Keith looks closer, at the stars in Shiro’s eyes, the galaxy holding so many mysteries, those eyes Keith fell in love with.

Something stunned and enchanted blooms in Keith’s heart. “...You remember my name...” He whispers, shocked.

Shiro smiles through his tears as they drip down onto Keith’s face. He nods his head as he gently runs his hand over Keith’s cheek, holding him tenderly. “I remember everything. _ Everything _ . I’ve _ missed you _ ... _ so much _ . You look so beautiful. More beautiful than anything in any and everything universe. I’ve missed you. I’ve _ missed you _. ...I love you so much.”

And it’s so funny how powerful the mind can be. Did Keith really want to give up so badly just moments ago? He thought he’d really just let himself fade away and be happy with it.

But why? Keith’s strong on his own, that’s true. That’s why he made it all these years, even though he wondered if he was alone. But they’re together again, Keith realizes, as he shakily seeks out Shiro’s hand, feels the warmth in his own.

He’s not going to give up. Not without one last miracle - at _ least _.

“I love you,” Shiro whispers. He hasn’t said in so long. Keith hasn’t heard it in years. “I love you. Keith_ . Keith _.”

“I love _ you _,” Keith weeps, overwhelmed. And it feels different this time. Met halfway. He just feels so much in his heart.

He leans up for Shiro, Shiro reaching down for him, and, after so long, they kiss again. Just as it was meant to be. Though there's no priest to officiate this union, no friends and family to witness and cheer, Keith still feels like this is it. This is the moment they'd been waiting for. This is _the one_.

They can basically hear the wedding bells ringing. Like true love's kiss. Maybe some people do get their happy endings, even here, on Earth.

And, like he’s never believed, Keith’s heart blazes back to life like it hasn't in years, not even before his days back home. He’s never felt this sort of strength and warmth before. It bursts into a flame brighter than he's ever even seen his mom's, lighting the forest up like some incredible blazing fire. The start of chaos maybe, but not if he controls it - this is the beginning of life. Of passion, of something _ magnificent _.

It’s not just a star anymore, it’s all the stars in the universe in one, willingly giving Keith the entirety of its strength, giving him its hope, giving him their way back home. After so long.

Shiro’s here. Keith’s found him. Shiro knows him. Shiro loves him. Keith feels stronger than he ever has. They’re going _ home _.

“Hold onto me,” Keith whispers, watching Shiro’s eyes in wonder.

“I won't let go,” Shiro promises.

And the little old man who watches over these grounds, drops his lantern in surprise. He’s seen a light in the distance, but it’s slipped through the cracks somehow. A trick of the light.

“They’re gone,” he whispers in shock.

His wife looks up to him, cocking an eyebrow. “Who’s gone?”

A slow smile warms his face as he looks to his wife’s confused face. “Your ghosts,” he laughs softly. “I felt them... They’ve gone on...after all this time. They’ve gone home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the beautiful art this fic is based on right [HERE!](https://twitter.com/sealightly/status/1190062194630823936) And if you've got a moment, I highly recommend checking out the rest of Sea's art on [their twitter!!](https://twitter.com/sealightly) There is something so full of soul and special about it all. Like soft waves or breath captured into a piece of art. ;__; <333
> 
> Also, [my twitter](https://twitter.com/go__begreat) if you want to say hi!
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


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